Smartphones Surge In India; Sales Grow 186% In 1Q2014

The current smartphone sales in India can be compared to a tsunami as during Q1 of 2014 (January-March), the industry witnessed an increase of 186% of sales compared to same period, last year. From 6.14 million smartphones shipping during Q1 of 2013, it has now increased to 17.59 million in Q1 of 2014.

As far as the market share for Smartphones went, Samsung remained the leader by a fair margin, followed by Micromax, Karbonn and Lava. This clearly points to the fact that apart from Samsung, Indians prefer Indian smartphone brands rather than Sony, LG or HTCs of the world. Surprisingly, Motorola with its strong Moto G sales did not make it to top 5.

Check out the smartphone market share in India at the end of 1Q2014.

The report estimates that by the end of 2014, total of 80.57 million smartphones would be sold in India, and the growth trajectory for the next 5 years is estimated to be 40% compound growth, every year. With the smartphone penetration still hovering around 10%, this is an exciting time for tech entrepreneurs and handset sellers as Indians are lapping up smartphones like hot cakes.

Yesterday we had shared that India is leading the new wave of mobile phone usage across the globe, and maximum number of new mobile subscriptions are actually happening in India and China as the western market is now saturated.

Top Selling Mobiles During Q1 of 2014

Some of the top selling mobiles during the period January-March 2014:

Samsung Galaxy Star Pro S7262

Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 S7582

Micromax Bolt series

Karbonn 2G phones

XOLO A500S

XOLO A500

Nokia X

Cheaper Nokia Lumia

Smartphones Encouraging BYOD Movement

One of the best side-effects of increasing smartphone sales in India is the wide scale adaption of BYOD movement across the corporate world. BYOD or “Bring Your Own Device” refers to the practice wherein employees bring their privately owned devices (smartphones, tablets, PCs) in their offices to access and work on their company’s information. This brings down the IT infrastructure costs of the company, and helps the employee to work from anywhere/anytime.

As per another IDC report, 22.5% of all smartphone sales in 2013 resulted due to the adaption to BYOD model. Tablets sales accounted for 4.9% and laptop sales accounted for 11.7%, if we take into consideration BYOD requirements. In 2014, around 155 million devices would be operational under BYOD method of operations, which is all set to grow at 40.4% yearly. The report mentions that almost 60% of all organizations in India have adapted or about to adapt BYOD model which will certainly increase productivity and performance.

Mohul keenly observes the nuances of Indian startup world; and tries to demystify the secrets behind Technology, Marketing, Mobile and Internet. He is a Writer by passion, Marketer by choice and Entrepreneur by compulsion. Follow him on Twitter here: @_mohul

[…] In the year 2013, total of 4.4 crore or 44 million smartphones were shipped inside India; which was 16.2 million in 2012. In the first quarter of 2014 (January-March), 17.4 million smartphones have already been shipped, which is 186% more than Q1 of 2013. […]